Reclaimed Yarn

Reclaimed Yarn
Originally uploaded by wendymc.

Reclaiming this yarn was a lot easier with the winder! This yarn used to be a failed attempt at Knitty.com's Bob sweater, and I may try this time to turn it into the Tivoli Tee. That's definitely the next pattern I want to make, I just haven't decided if I should make it with this yarn, or some other cotton yarn I have.

Baby Hats

krishats
Originally uploaded by wendymc.

I finished up a couple baby hats for my friend. She had twins a couple weeks ago, so they had to be smallish, I hope these do the trick. I used the same yarn for both, the blue/green is the stuff I dyed before, the reddish hat I dyed after knitting. It took two attempts but the dye soaked into the cables ok, there aren't many spots where the old colour shows through, and they're really subtle, so I'm leaving it.

I love the swift and winder. The swift made setting up for koolaid dying, and winding after, so nice. And the wound skeins are great to knit from. The yarn doesn't get stretched, they don't roll around on the floor or table, and they remain tangle free RIGHT TO THE END!

I bought a bunch of wool for koolaid dying before we moved into our house. Some Lana from Walmart on clearance, and 5 or 6 smaller skeins of wool from a thrift shop. I don't have a clue where they are! I would love to do some more dying, but I don't know where these yarns went. Maybe I'll work on organizing my stash this weekend. I need to sort out all the yarn I don't want, maybe try to find some local knitters to swap with or something. It's hard to find the yarn you want when it's burried under lots you don't want.

I got a couple of neat knitting gifts for my birthday on Saturday: a ball winder and swift from my husband! The swift is so pretty, soft light coloured wood, so smooth. The winder is industrial looking but works great. I've been resisting the urge to wind up everything in site! (I did do a few balls right away)

I got a chance to do some koolaid dying yesterday so I put the swift to use making hanks. Let me tell you it is SO much easier using the swift than winding around chair legs, which is what I used to do. Way less tangles, too. And once everything dried in the morning, winding the hank into a ball using both pieces was so fast and easy!

Here is the yarn I dyed, using ice blue lemonade and changing cherry koolaid. You can see the blue in pretty hank form, and then in skein form, with a tiny ball of scrap I dyed using spiderman koolaid (thought it would be green but it was red so I dyed the scrap rather than waste it)

Blue Pinwheel Blanket

Blue Pinwheel Blanket
Originally uploaded by wendymc.

I started another Pinwheel Baby Blanket and have abotu 9inches done so far. I REALLY like his pattern for mindless knitting, and it grows quite quickly. This colourway looks really nice to me, but I'm dissapointed to notice that it's not as soft as others in this yarn. The solid white and solid pink I've used before were much softer than this one. It's still okay, just not as nice. I've heard of this happeneing, different dye colours affecting the yarn differently, maybe the veregated yarns have to go through different processes as well. (It's Bernat Satin, incidentally)

I think I want to make the Mu Shu throw from Berroco's latest newsletter. It was the "no finishing" note that grabbed me, but I think it could make a really nice baby blanket. I'm not sold on their yarn, I'll have to think of what I'd like to make it in. The Vibe yarn they use looks interesting, but nothing amazing, and I suspect it would be expensive as most Berroco yarns are. Surely Bernat or Patons have something I could use. It might look good only in two colours, just a checkerboard pattern as well.

I knit a little more on the baby hat in "be mine" but I'm not loving how it's turning out. I like the yarn, it's a lot like snowflake but stronger so it's not as delicate to knit with. I was aiming for a roll-brim hat, but my cast on was a bit tight so I'm not sure how that will work out.

I've been working a bit on my soleil top again. I haven't got much done but I'd like a chance to wear this during the summer, so I'd better get knitting! The cotton blend yarn is knitting up nice and light, so it's easy to cart around, not too bulky.

I am still knitting.....a little. We just moved into a house we bought (go us!) and life has been busy and stressful to say the least. At a time when knitting would be most welcome, I didn't have time for it! I finished reknitting the hat for my neice in time for her birthday. I don't know if my sister liked it, the party was on our moving weekend so I couldn't go. She didn't get that it matched the cardigan, my mom made her dig it out to see that. (thanks mom!)

I bought some Patons Be Mine yarn yesterday. It's SO soft, I'm going to make a fluffy baby hat out of it, I think. Probably just stockingknit in the round - nice and easy.

I want to make another pinwheel baby blanket. I have been looking for a nice veregated yarn in a large skein, but not much other than the cotton seems nice. Walmart has some Red Heart Comfort, but it feels scratchy and the colour repeats are really short. I'm thinking about Bernat Satin, it's really nice and soft, and thick so it would knit up fast. I'm not sure if the blanket would end up really heavy, though. I'm liking what Emily did with hers, she put garter rows in. It looks really nice, if I don't go with a veregated yarn I might try that.

Off to the frog pond with this hat:

The only thing wrong with it? It's too big. It's for my neice, to match the cardigan I made for her in april. It's meant for fall, when the cardigan will fit, and she'll be the age my daughter is right now. I tried the hat on Teagan this morning, and it's a bit too big, and my daughter has a BIG head. No sense making a matching hat that can't be worn with the item it matches, so I'm ripping out and starting over. I made it 96 stitches around, maybe I'll go down to 80, that seems like it will be about right.

The purses felted up ok. Sophie(blue) is a bit stiff, and quite heavy for the handle. I may consider putting on a different handle later. They're a little pilly too, so I'll shave them later.


Teagan's purse(purple) was a made up design and it turned out pretty well, I might make more like that. She seemed to like it:

Both purses are finished, and felting away (I hope) in the washing machine as I type. I'm excited, this part of felting is scarey and cool at the same time, you're never quite sure what's going to happen to the pieces........

Very little knitting time these days. We just bought a house and are renovating it before we move in, so we're quite busy. I try to sneak in a few rows driving to and from the place each day, though. I'm working on a sophie bag (magknits.com) and a made-up purse for my daughter, both to be felted.

I've been 'outted' as a knitter at work, big time. I carried my current knitting project (a just-started baby hat) around with me in my work bag, in case I found myself with some down time, and headed off to my departmental all morning meeting. I was the first one there, and it was in a sort of auditorium (we're a big department, 50+) so I found a seat and pulled out my knitting. As people arrove I got some interesting comments, people checking out what I was making. My boss seemed quite amused that I was knitting. And as the meeting started I didn't bother to stop, since I wasn't causing a problem. It turned out to be a good thing to be knitting, I have trouble with my mind wandering in long meetings, sitting so still and inactive drives me nuts, so keeping my fingers busy let me concentrate better.

Anyways, as my boss got up to give the summary of his group, who's new, etc, he says "and knitting away there is Wendy, just back from maternity leave" *blush* I could feel the eyes on me. Later near the end they were doing a draw (they gave away silly prizes for fun) the person drawing joked that the prize was the hat I was knitting. *blush again*

But I did finish the hat!

It's finished!

I finally finished the round baby blanket. I actually finished it a couple days ago but I wanted to wash it before taking a photo. I think it shrunk a tad in the wash, as it's cotton, but that's ok. It's a little over 2 and a half feet accross, small for a blanket but a nice size for a stroller or lap or carseat. I found most baby blankets too big when Teagan was very young, hopefully the recipient feels the same. I was dissapointed in how it wouldn't lay flat, it's not actually a circle, and looks like I could have skipped one of the sections (there were 10) to make it turn out better. Here it is folded in half, you can see how it's bigger around than a circle:

I didn't find any mistakes, so I'm not sure what happened, maybe my row guage was way off or something, I certainly didn't bother with a guage swatch for this.

I enjoyed making this a lot, even though it wasn't difficult or exciting, and I could see making more in the future. The price is right, a whole skein of the veregated cotton I used is around $7, the solids would make a slightly larger blanket for the same price.

I had to rip out about 10 rows of the pinwheel blanket. I got the increases messed up so half the round was on an increase row and half wasn't, and I couldn't find where I went wrong. It might have been ok, or the blanket might have ended up lopsided, and I didn't want to chance it. I'm almost back to where I was, though, since it knits so fast. Good thing, I have 2 weeks to finish this.

I need another quick project too, something I can finish in a week. I was thinking of an apple hat, those are cute and fast, but I have no red yarn. Maybe I can make it to Michael's in the next day or two. I'd love a cotton or cotton blend since it's heading into summer. Wool is warm and acrylic scratchy for a baby.

Here's the pinwheel blanket, as of 2 days ago:

I haven't made a lot of progress since then, maybe 5 rows? It's getting big, barely fitting on the TWO needles even. Since it's a baby blanket it doesn't need to be too big, I'm just going to let the yarn be my guide, I seem to be about 2/3 of the way through the skein now, so when I get nearer the end I'll finish off with some seed stitch. Cara did that with hers and I like how it looks. I don't want anything too frilly for a boy blanket

I'm still really enjoying working on this baby blanket, mindless knitting is a nice break these days. It's about 20inches accross right now. I'm not sure how big to make it, I was thinking about 3 feet would be good. I'll have to measure some baby blankets I have at home to see what a nice size would be. I might need to get a longer needle, or use two. This circular needle is around 36inches (do you measure tip-to-tip? I did) and I can just manage it at the current size. A few more rounds of increases and I don't think it will fit on the needles, I'll have to see if I have a second one this size. Maybe I will see if they make them any bigger, though I don't make a lot of blankets I might be better off just using 2 shorter ones.

I started a new project, because the 50-odd ones going on now weren't enough. I'm making the Pinwheel Baby Blanket in a pretty purple/blue veregated cotton. Here's my progress so far: It's easy to knit, and I love how it looks, we'll see how boring it is in another 20 rounds though. I love the colours, the yarnwas going to be for a top for myself, but that didn't work out. I hope it's "boyish" enough....

I'm feeling a little unravelled. (har-de-har-har)

I can't focus on one project, there is so much I want to get done, and should get done, stuff I haven't even started yet, and I can't figure out where to focus. Current WIP list(ACTIVE WIPs, not mentioning the abandoned ones)

• Soleil (just finished the lace)
  
• Sophie Bag
  
• Crochet Star Afghan
  
• Knit socks for Teagan (nearly done)
  
• Cotton cap sleeve top for me (nearly done)
  
• Bulky Assymetrical Baby sweater
  

Stuff I need to do and haven't started yet:

• Sun hat for Teagan
  
• Gender Neutral baby gift for May
  
• Slippers for neice - June
  
• Boy Baby gift for June
  
• Gender Neutral Baby Gift for June
  
• Boy baby gift #1 for July
  
• Boy Baby gift #2 for July
  
• Girl Baby gift for July
  
• Gender Neutral Baby Gift for August
  

*not mentioning planned xmas gifts at this point*

I've made it a little further up soleil, but quite a ways to go yet. I haven't had a lot of knitting time, and I fear I will have to set this project aside to get wroking on more baby gifts. Thankfully baby items are small and fairly fast, but I really want to finish Soleil!